All-star bands are rarely, if ever, any good. There are a few notable exceptions, but what looks good on paper rarely adds up to quality in real-life. Khoma is one such exception. Who would've thought that combining members from such dissimilar acts as Cult of Luna and The Perishers would work so well? Oh, but it does; in fact it sometimes eclipses the other acts altogether. I was excited about Khoma as soon as their first album "Tsunami" was released, way back in 2004 before they added the H to the name. With so many lackluster mid-tempo heavy acts polluting the airwaves I wanted to shout Khoma's name from the mountaintops to let everyone know how good they are. The band's new album "The second wave" is even better than the debut. I had some trepidations about they rerecording some of the songs from the first, but I relucatantly agree that it makes sense now that they have a much bigger potential audience through Roadrunner and heck, they sound great. Why complain? Kudos to Magnus Lindberg at Tonteknik - the drums recording is killer. I'm sure some it is Thomas Hedlund's constantly improved playing and maybe his kit, but whatever it is, the tones they got on tape are stunning. For today's mp3 I've decided to revisit the track "One of us must hang" which I used to close out the first "Reader's companion" disc. The new version is a tad faster, but it's just as powerful. Check it out.

MP3: Khoma - One of us must hang

All-star bands are rarely, if ever, any good. There are a few notable exceptions, but what looks good on paper rarely adds up to quality in real-life. Khoma is one such exception. Who would've thought that combining members from such dissimilar acts as Cult of Luna and The Perishers would work so well? Oh, but it does; in fact it sometimes eclipses the other acts altogether. I was excited about Khoma as soon as their first album "Tsunami" was released, way back in 2004 before they added the H to the name. With so many lackluster mid-tempo heavy acts polluting the airwaves I wanted to shout Khoma's name from the mountaintops to let everyone know how good they are. The band's new album "The second wave" is even better than the debut. I had some trepidations about they rerecording some of the songs from the first, but I reluctantly agree that it makes sense now that they have a much bigger potential audience through Roadrunner and heck, they sound great. Why complain? Kudos to Magnus Lindberg at Tonteknik - the drums recording is killer. I'm sure some it is Thomas Hedlund's constantly improved playing and maybe his kit, but whatever it is, the tones they got on tape are stunning. For today's mp3 I've decided to revisit the track "One of us must hang" which I used to close out the first "Reader's companion" disc. The new version is a tad faster, but it's just as powerful. Check it out.

Khoma - One of us must hang

Cult of Luna will have a special tour-only 7" coming out on ONE 01 featuring two cover tunes. 500 copies, grey vinyl and only available at shows. Ebay gold? Hell yes. In other news, vocalist Klas is becoming a father and will sit out this next tour. Guitarist Johannes will cover in his stead.

Check out an e-card for the new Cult of Luna album: http://www.earache.com/bands/cult_of_luna/sath_promo/player.html

Lupatarkastaja is reporting that doom act From Now On has signed with US label Empyreal Records and will have their "Outlined shapes" demo remastered by Magnus Lindberg (Cult Of Luna) at Tonteknik and rereleased as a vinyl EP. Pretty cool. Empyreal is apparently also working with Swedish act Lolita Stasi on their next release. Read a translated, unedited version of an interview that Lupatarkastaja did with FNO, originally published at Noise.fi: http://lupatarkastaja.samizdat.info/2006/03/15/from-now-on-deal-interview/#more-1631

Upcoming European tourdates for Cult of Luna:

04/15 - Close Up Festival, Stockholm (SWE)
04/18 - Sojo, Leuven (BEL)
04/19 - Vera, Groningen (NL)
04/20 - Dynamo, Eindhoven (NL)
04/21 - Patronaat, Haarlem (NL)
04/22 - Rock City, Nottingham (UK)
04/23 - Pitz Club, Milton Keynes (UK)
04/24 - Joiners Arms, Southampton (UK)
04/25 - Star And Garter, Manchester (UK)
04/26 - Barfly, Liverpool (UK)
04/27 - Barfly, Glasgow (UK)
04/28 - Barfly, York (UK)
04/29 - Limelight, Belfast (UK)
04/30 - Voodoo Lounge, Dublin (IRE)
05/01 - Barfly, Birmingham (UK)
05/02 - Barfly, London (UK)
05/04 - La Loco, Paris (FRA)
05/05 - Le Son Art, Bordeaux (FRA)
05/06 - Le Marché Gare, Lyon (FRA)

Cult of Luna is now streaming two new tracks on myspace: http://www.myspace.com/cultofluna

An edited version of the new Cult of Luna track "Finland" has been posted on Earache's myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/earacherecords

Cult of Luna reports that their new album "Somewhere along the highway" is finished and will be released on April 24 via Earache Records. Read the full press release: http://www.digitalmetal.com/news.asp?cid=7105

I've been doing a little trolling around on myspace trying to discover new bands and while, for the most part, I'm not really uncovering anything incredibly exciting but they are definitely a few diamonds in the rough. One such disovery was Circle Six, a doom band from Linköping. I'm not sure that I'd consider most of the bands following in the footsteps of Isis to be worthy of the doom title, but Circle Six knows what's up. Not only are they incredibly heavy, but they are slow. Agonizingly slow. So slow that the cymbal ring almost completely decays between drum hits. It's like being bludgeoned to death in slow motion. Most of you probably think that sounds perfectly awful, but I'm sure that any aficionados of the genre are stoked by that description. It's also worth noting that instead of the more typical death-metal growls (ie. Skepticism) or hardcore-style shouts (ie. Cult of Luna, Isis), the vocals are a crusty black-metal rasp. Just the way I like it: kvlt and evil. Sometimes "brutal" is a positive adjective, y'know?

MP3: Circle Six - Broken

I've been doing a little trolling around on myspace trying to discover new bands and while, for the most part, I'm not really uncovering anything incredibly exciting but they are definitely a few diamonds in the rough. One such disovery was Circle Six, a doom band from Linköping. I'm not sure that I'd consider most of the bands following in the footsteps of Isis to be worthy of the doom title, but Circle Six knows what's up. Not only are they incredibly heavy, but they are slow. Agonizingly slow. So slow that the cymbal ring almost completely decays between drum hits. It's like being bludgeoned to death in slow motion. Most of you probably think that sounds perfectly awful, but I'm sure that any aficionados of the genre are stoked by that description. It's also worth noting that instead of the more typical death-metal growls (ie. Skepticism) or hardcore-style shouts (ie. Cult of Luna, Isis), the vocals are a crusty black-metal rasp. Just the way I like it: kvlt and evil. Sometimes "brutal" is a positive adjective, y'know?

Circle Six - Broken

Khoma (nee Koma), the all-star band featuring members from Cult of Luna, The Perishers and Scared, has posted a new track ("Medea") from their upcoming Roadrunner debut album on myspace: http://www.myspace.com/khoma

Basic tracks for the next Cult of Luna album are done, so all that's left to do are vocals and some overdubs. Check out their myspace blog for pics and more details: http://blog.myspace.com/cultofluna

Callisto, Finland's answer to Cult of Luna, has announced that they have begun preproduction for their second album. The band plans to enter the studio with producer/engineer Jonas Olsson in December and the finished product should be released sometime in the first half of next year.

Podcast: The sound of Umeå, part 2